Cereal manufacturers today are faced with the ever-increasing challenge of producing flavorful yet nutritious products that appeal to consumers. Nutritionally, compared with other grains, oats offer a high concentration of protein, a good distribution of amino acids, and fiber. Oat groats—the component of oats that is used to form oat flakes (also termed “flaked oats” herein)—reportedly have a high protein concentration in the range of about 13.8% to 25.5%. See Oat, Ch. 10 by V. L. Young and R. A. Forsberg, in “Nutritional Quality of Cereal Grains: Genetic and Agronomic Improvement,” pp. 466–475, published by the American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Madison, Wis. (1987). Moreover, the amino acid composition of oat protein is good compared to other grains. Although lysine is the major limiting amino acid in oats, oats still have a higher concentration of this amino acid than is typically found in other grains. Further, rolled oat groats are a good fiber source as they contain about 1.1% crude fiber and thus provide 0.3 grams of crude fiber per ounce of rolled oat groats.
Various oat-based products—namely, granola—have been produced which take advantage of the high nutritional profile of the oat grain. However, because these products are produced via a baking process, they tend to have a relatively hard texture. For that reason, granola-based products are formulated to contain at least about 3 to 7 grams of fat per about 55 grams of finished product, wherein the fat imparts a tender texture to the product. Further, in the packaged granola product, the coating material tends to chip or fall off the baked granola product and settle at the bottom of the package. As a result, it is virtually impossible to obtain a uniform, bulk-packaged, oat-based granola product.
Thus, there exists a need for an uncooked oat product comprising oat flakes and having a coating adhered to the oat product which contributes no added fat to the finished oat product. There also exists a need for an agglomerated oat product comprising agglomerated, uncooked oat flakes having a fat-free coating adhered to the uncooked oat flakes. Further, there exists a need for methods for making both of the aforedescribed, inventive oat products.